Advice from renowned designers: expose yourself to different cultures

At the Business of Design Week (BODW) Forum which ran from December 5-7 in Hong Kong, renowned speakers urged their fellow young design talents to broaden their horizons.

Advice from renowned designers

Belgium architect and designer Charles Kaisin was the first speaker on the first day of the forum. He said that psychology plays an important part in the creative process, “At the beginning of the design process, I use a criteria grid to build the perception of an object. It is important to understand these criteria and try to achieve them in the future.”

To nurture talents, Mr. Kaisin encourages designers to “open up their eyes”. “Belgium is multi-cultural country with a very rich background and our designers certainly benefited from that. I believe students should expose themselves to different cultures and aspects.”

Patrick le Quément, the co-founder of The Sustainable Design School in France, had the same belief. He recalled his experience working with French automotive manufacturer Renault.

“At Renault we started the trend mission, bringing our designers to visit different cities and exhibitions. We were not going to car shows but different types of exhibition, for example, an art fair to look for new innovations.” He said.

The 11th BODW Forum kicked off on December 5, with Her Royal Highness Queen Mathilde of Belgium along with Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chunying officiating the opening ceremony. This year’s BODW partner country is Belgium.